Jiang Lin and Ji Minglun had been to this Marriott several times before and were very familiar with the environment here, but this was the first time that he and Ji Minglun did not sit in the same row, but looked at each other face to face.
"Would you like anything to drink? Do you want me to bring you a glass of ice water?"
Shen Ran's voice came from the side, and Jiang Lin came back to his senses and burped again before speaking. He covered his mouth with a little embarrassment, shook his head and said, "I'll get it myself."
Shen Ran smiled and told him not to worry about it, then stood up to get his food. Deng Yi on the opposite side also pulled Ji Minglun up, and the two walked towards the food pick-up area. He sat alone on the chair for a while, and the classmates at the tables around him were all strangers to him. When he looked around, two boys at the table next to him were also talking about him. When they saw him looking over, they stopped talking and lowered their heads to eat.
If he didn't feel out of place when watching the game just now, then at this moment, he clearly felt that he was redundant.
Shen Ran soon came back with two plates. He also left his seat to get food, but after walking around for a long time he didn't find the food he wanted. Instead, he witnessed Deng Yi and Ji Minglun selecting blue crabs in the seafood area.
Deng Yi was afraid of the crab's dancing claws and legs, and wanted to pick it up but didn't dare to. Ji Minglun stood by and watched. Although he didn't help, his mouth was always curled up. When Deng Yi couldn't pick it up anymore and gave him the claws, he reached in and picked up a crab and threw it into the bucket. After the crab went in, it wanted to climb up. Deng Yi was so scared that he moved two steps to the side. He laughed and complained that there was nothing to be afraid of, and then picked up the second one.
The two of them were so focused on picking up seafood that they didn't notice Jiang Lin standing not far away, watching intently. After Ji Minglun and Deng Yi went to the shellfish area, Jiang Lin slowly walked to the crab area, staring at a group of blue crabs baring their claws in the fiberglass, and then looked at the somewhat quiet June Yellow next to them.
He likes to eat hairy crabs, which Ji Minglun knows better than anyone else, but now Ji Minglun won't even touch this kind of crab.
When Jiang Lin came back, he only had one plate. Seeing that he only picked a few shrimps, clams and a shrimp fillet, Shen Ran asked him if he couldn't eat because of the hiccups.
He was still burping, even if it wasn't as frequent as it was at the beginning, but he couldn't stop. He said he wasn't very hungry, so he put all the seafood on the plate into the hot pot, got up and went to the beverage area to get some soda water, unscrewed the cap and drank half of it in one breath.
He had originally wanted to suppress his hiccups in this way, but he didn't expect that he couldn't stop eating even after he prepared the sauce. He gave up and went back to sit down when he found the cooked seafood on the plate.
Shen Ran was peeling shrimps. When he saw him looking up at Ji Minglun, he took the initiative to explain: "Senior said that you cooked it for too long and it will become tough. I helped you pick it up first."
Jiang Lin's eyes were still fixed on Ji Minglun's face, but the latter seemed to be completely unaware and lowered his head to eat the freshly grilled honey chicken wings. Deng Yi, who was standing next to him, took a sip of Coke and used a fork to put a piece of herbed lamb chops on Ji Minglun's plate: "Eat this, it's delicious."
Ji Minglun put the lamb chop back on Deng Yi's plate: "Eat it yourself, I'll get it later."
Deng Yi thought he thought it was dirty, so she patted his arm and said, "What are you doing? I haven't touched this lamb chop before. If you go over there later, it will be gone. This thing is very popular."
Ji Minglun remained indifferent: "If there is nothing, then don't eat it."
Deng Yi frowned and looked at him: "Don't you like eating this? What's wrong with you today? You're not pregnant and your taste has changed."
Shen Ran on the opposite side chuckled, immediately covered his mouth and coughed a few times. Ji Minglun glanced at Deng Yi, and when he looked up, his eyes met Jiang Lin who was still staring at him, and he turned away awkwardly.
Jiang Lin looked at him and turned away, but he was thinking about what Deng Yi said.
Since he was a child, Ji Minglun has never liked eating lamb chops, thinking that they smell too muttony. Every time he saw himself eating them with relish, Ji Minglun would stay away from them. Now he has suddenly changed his taste
Jiang Lin really wanted to ask what was going on, but the environment did not allow him to chat about this with Ji Minglun, so he had to suppress all his questions and eat first.
After eating in the restaurant for nearly two hours, everyone was very satisfied. After Ji Minglun paid the bill, they said goodbye to him one after another and left the same way they came.
Shen Ran didn't go with them either. Deng Yi and Ji Minglun got on the back seat of Jiang Lin's car and headed home.
On the way, Deng Yi said it was still early and wanted to ask Ji Minglun to go to the beach to digest his food. Ji Minglun said he had not finished looking up information. Deng Yi asked him to go to the exhibition tomorrow afternoon, but he still refused with the excuse of studying. Deng Yi was unhappy and ignored him with a pout for the rest of the time. Jiang Lin occasionally looked in the rearview mirror and could see the two of them sitting at a certain distance.
Although they had not known each other for long, Jiang Lin could already tell that Deng Yiming was in love with Ji Minglun. As for what Ji Minglun thought of her, Jiang Lin could not guess and did not dare to analyze it too much.
As for Shen Ran just now, Jiang Lin had previously speculated whether Shen Ran and Ji Minglun were in a relationship that could not be made public as he had seen at home that day. Now looking at Shen Ran's attitude towards him, it should be just a misunderstanding.
He sighed in his heart, and a burp made his chest uncomfortable again. He took the mineral water under the center console armrest and had just taken a sip when his cell phone rang.
After glancing at the in-car screen, he directly pressed the hang-up button on the steering wheel. A moment later, the ringtone rang again. He hung up again. About two minutes later, it was Ji Minglun's turn to ring.
He subconsciously felt something was wrong, and when he looked in the rearview mirror, he found that Ji Minglun was also looking at him.
That look was as knowing as before, and it immediately confirmed that his guess was correct.
He held the steering wheel tightly, thinking that Ji Minglun would not answer, and then he heard Ji Minglun say, "Hey, uncle."
His heart was in his throat. He stared at the road ahead and listened to Ji Minglun continue talking to the person on the other end of the phone.
"Yes, we have met, but we are not together now."
"He's fine... Well, maybe it's inconvenient for him to answer your call."
"Okay... I understand. Don't worry, I will tell him."
"Well, goodbye uncle."
After hanging up the phone, Ji Minglun looked at Jiang Lin in the rearview mirror again. At this time, Deng Yi said, "Who is this uncle?"
"You don't know him." Ji Minglun said in a cold tone. Deng Yi was already unhappy, and she became even angrier when he treated her so perfunctorily. She glared at him and continued to look out the window.
The atmosphere in the car was much more depressing than before. Jiang Lin was confused and kept thinking about the content of the phone call.
It seems that Jiang Jianchen doesn't know about the falling out between him and Ji Minglun.
After sending Deng Yi downstairs to her home, Jiang Lin unlocked the door on Deng Yi's side. Unexpectedly, Deng Yi asked Ji Minglun to get out of the car as well, as she had something to say.
Ji Minglun declined at first, but Deng Yi insisted, so he had to go down with her. He was pulled a few steps away by the arm and stood next to the flowers to talk.
Jiang Lin wanted to roll down the window to listen to what they said, but it was too conspicuous to do so, so he had to sit in the car and wait. However, he soon couldn't sit still anymore, because he saw Deng Yi holding Ji Minglun's hand with a very uncomfortable expression.
Ji Minglun had his back to the car. Jiang Lin stared at their movements, his breathing quickened with nervousness, fearing that Ji Minglun would hug Deng Yi in his arms the next moment.
Fortunately, this worry was quickly dispelled. Ji Minglun pulled his hand back, said something to Deng Yi, and turned back to the car. Jiang Lin immediately looked forward. When Ji Minglun opened the car door, a car passing by on the left honked to alert the car in front that wanted to change lanes. The sudden piercing noise stimulated his heart to tremble.
Looking at the two cars whizzing past in front of him, before he could come to his senses, he heard Ji Minglun say, "You can go now."
The person in the rearview mirror looked out the window seriously, as if he couldn't sense his gaze. He glanced at Deng Yi again.
She had already turned and walked away, and from her steps it was clear that she was angry.
Retracting his gaze, Jiang Lin slowly stepped on the accelerator.
The rest of the journey was quiet as usual. Jiang Lin glanced at the rearview mirror from time to time, and every time he saw Ji Minglun looking down at his phone. He tried to find some topics to ease the awkward atmosphere, but he didn't know what to say after opening his mouth several times.
In the past, even if they had nothing to talk about, the atmosphere was always comfortable and relaxed. It was never like it is now, where even the air seems to be frozen.
Arriving at the neighborhood where Ji Minglun lived, Jiang Lin did not park outside, but turned the steering wheel and drove through the gate. The system recognized his license plate number and automatically raised the bar, but Ji Minglun in the back seat still did not respond until he drove the car into the basement and parked next to Ji Minglun's car.
Ji Minglun locked the screen, put his phone in his trouser pocket and raised his hand to open the door. When he pulled it and found that the door did not move, he turned around and looked at the person in front of him.
Jiang Lin leaned against the headrest of the driver's seat with his hand on the door armrest next to him, with no intention of unlocking the door.
Letting go of the door handle, Ji Minglun leaned back in his chair and asked, "Do you want to ask what your father said?"
Jiang Lin raised his eyes, and their gazes met again in the rearview mirror. Jiang Lin's hesitant expression was not concealed, and Ji Minglun just glanced at him and then looked away.
"He said that he called the school and found out that you had returned to China. He called you but you didn't answer. Please call him back later."
"Doesn't he know about our quarrel yet?" Jiang Lin asked softly.
With his elbows against the car door and his fingers clenched into a fist against his chin, Ji Minglun looked out the window: "I didn't tell him."
"Why not?"
Looking at the reflection of the private car next door, Ji Minglun raised the corners of his mouth, but his tone was a little unhappy: "I'm not a three-year-old child. Do I have to sue my parents after a quarrel?"
Jiang Lin was speechless. Ji Minglun put down his hand and said, "Open the door. I have homework to do when I get home."
Although he really wanted to ask what Deng Yi had just said, Jiang Lin knew that now was not a good time, so he could only watch Ji Minglun get off the car and stride towards the elevator.
After entering the house, Ji Minglun went to the refrigerator to get a bottle of Coke, drank it, and then went into the bathroom to take a shower.
When he took off his shirt, his T-shirt got caught on his right ear. He looked in the mirror and found that his ear was still quite red, but fortunately it didn't hurt much. After taking a shower, he lay down on the bed and went to bed without even looking at his phone. He was very tired today and should have fallen asleep quickly, but he tossed and turned, and couldn't stop thinking about Jiang Lin.
Thinking about everything that happened today related to Jiang Lin, thinking about every look Jiang Lin gave me.
He kept telling himself not to think too much, but for some reason, he just felt that Jiang Lin's eyes were not right.
Knowing clearly that I once had those feelings for him, how could he still care about me so without any sense of limits
Staring at the hazy night sky on the ceiling, Ji Minglun sighed, sat up and lit a cigarette, then took out his phone to see if there were any messages. As a result, he found an unread message from Jiang Lin half an hour ago on the WeChat interface.
There is only one sentence: [The hiccups still can't be stopped]
As he read the words, he unconsciously saw Jiang Lin pursing his lips, looking at him with a slightly aggrieved expression, and then suddenly burping.
Thinking of Jiang Lin's rare expression, Ji Minglun couldn't help but want to laugh, but then he frowned and spit on himself.
Leaning against the head of the bed, he stared at Jiang Lin's dialog box, hesitated for a moment, typed in four words and sent it out.
[Drink more hot water]
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The author has something to say:
Jiang Lin:? He told me to drink more hot water